Monday, September 26, 2011

It was bad enough when it was learned that the ATF directed gun store owners to sell weapons to bad guys, who the ATF then allowed to 'walk' those guns into Mexico. That reality just got a whole lot worse thanks to a letter written by ATF supervisor David Voth. That letter was addressed to a gun store owner, directing him to sell weapons to none other than agent John Dodson, the whistleblower who blew this entire scandal wide open when he came forward in February of 2011 with information that implicated the ATF in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Dodson is the agent who put a face to the whistleblowers in Sharyl Attkisson’s bombshell CBS News interviews. Other sources tell Mike Vanderboegh that this letter indicates Dodson would have been fearful to proceed without documentation to prove management not only knew and approved of this activity, but had directed it.

A critical piece to the puzzle here is what Dodson was instructed to do with these weapons once he purchased them. Yes, he was using taxpayer money to buy the guns but if they weren't being put in the hands of bad guys, there's not much 'there' there, right? Well, Codrea quotes from Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street:

"The existence of this letter," Vanderboegh writes, "coupled with interviews of other sources across the country which put it into context, provides startling proof that the Federal government did not merely 'lose track' of weapons purchased by 'straw buyers' under surveillance by the ATF and destined for the Mexican drug cartels. In an undercover operation ordered by Fast and Furious supervisor David Voth, the U.S. government purchased firearms with taxpayer money from licensed firearms dealers, instructed them to conduct the sales 'off the books,' and used an ATF agent, John Dodson, to deliver them directly to people that Dodson believed were conducting them across the border."

Consider the stakes sufficiently raised in this scandal. If, as this information indicates, Dodson was directed by Voth to purchase guns with US taxpayer cash dollars and then give them to bad guys, it further implicates the ATF and anyone higher in the commission of extremely serious crimes. It also directly removes the argument from the ATF that mistakes were made. This information indicates no such thing. Crimes took place. Sipsey Street makes clear that it was not Dodson who provided them with the letter; it was another source entirely:

"Dodson was given this undercover assignment by Voth," said the source, "to purchase weapons directly and provide them to the smugglers. He was operating under cover, pretending to be a 'straw buyer.'" He continued, "I think Dodson demanded the letter from Voth to cover both himself and the FFL (Federal Firearm Licensee). He didn't want to be hung out to dry" by Voth.

A source also said that the undercover assignment was an effort by Voth to "dirty him (Dodson) up," pointing out that by the time of the undercover assignment that Dodson's vocal opposition to "letting guns walk" was well known to his superiors in the Phoenix ATF office.

Perhaps most alarming are the claims that there were powerful forces inside the ATF who were open to killing Dodson.

After the death of Brian Terry, the "rumor" post on the ATF agent's website, CleanUpATF.org and the initial coverage by these reporters in the early weeks of January, 2011, "things got ugly" for Dodson. Blamed by his immediate supervisors as well as many of his fellow agents in the Phoenix office for "treason" as one source described it, Dodson's existence at the Phoenix office was described as "precarious" by one D.C. source. The threats to his life were perceived to be so great that "solitary range days" were arranged by a sympathetic supervisor so Dodson could practice marksmanship in safety. "He (the supervisor) didn't want him (Dodson) to eat one in the back" in a range "accident," said the source.

There are two general reasons why this scandal is not going away. First, the severity of the charges and second, the layers of this toxic onion that continue to get peeled back.